Minotaurs

Minotaurs
Battle Cry	Moooooo!!! (Presumably)
Number	N/A
Founding	21st Founding (Initial)
Successors of	Classified (The original Minotaurs likely descended from loyalist World Eaters; the new Minotaurs are all but confirmed to use Iron Warriors geneseed. Hints that one of the two are chimeric, money's on the unstable psychopaths)
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Asterion Moloc
Primarch	Unknown
Homeworld	Fleet Based
Strength	1000 (Officially)
Specialty	Being the shit out of other Space Marines, taking their stuff, pissing off the Ultramarines, and being the High Lords' personal army.
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	(old) Ketchup & Mustard stripes; (new) Bronze with a little Red.

If you are looking for the bull-headed beastmen from Greek mythology, see Minotaur.

Out with the old...

The Minotaurs were a Chapter of Space Marines and massive dicks. They were formed in the Cursed Founding as psychopathic berzerkers and were possibly World Eaters successors, and first appeared in White Dwarf as one of the playable Chapters for the Chapter Approved Cursed founding article where they were also mentioned to have beaten the shit out of the Lamenters during the Badab War, because (they got hit with the retcon stick. Now the "psycho-condiment" Minotaurs disappeared thousands of years before the Badab War, instead its the bronzy bull bois below who beat the shit out of the Lamenters and shake them down for relics like a bully taking lunch money from the class nerd). Still, they've always been assholes... And then they disappeared (to everyone's relief). Their color scheme was also fucking atrocious.

...and in with the new

The Minotaurs have many suits of MKVIII "errant" pattern Power Armor.

They later popped up in Imperial Armour Volume 10 and had their lore (and thankfully colour scheme) overhauled. They now dress like ancient Greeks and their Chapter Master, one Asterion Moloc, appears to have pilfered the prop department from 300 for his outfit. They no longer maintain the "psychopathic berzerkers' flavour; instead (while still liking melee combat) they make and execute detailed battle plans focusing on siege and attrition warfare, being brooding, paranoid about security protocols, and very pragmatic. Example of that last trait being in Imperial Armour Volume 12 here they let a good chunk of the Imperial Navy fight and die before they stepped in to give themselves a better chance against the Necrons (what assholes). However, they also act as the High Lords' attack dogs now, since they have vast stores of incredibly rare wargear (including shittons of Tartaros-pattern Terminator armour, Mk8 power armor, loads of Dreadnoughts, their very own Storm Eagle variant and at least one Adeptus Custodes halberd), and the Minotaurs only act on orders from the High Lords themselves, telling anyone in their way to piss off. Oh, and their Administratum records are sealed so tight that not even Inquisitors can easily break them. Which implies something about them (gee, wonder what?) has at least some Inquisitors worried. They are essentially the Greek Blood Ravens, but with fewer psykers, and instead of stealing your stuff when you aren't looking, they will just mug you then take it.

One of their Brother-Captains insulted Marneus Calgar right in front of an Ultramarines descendant, and the chapter later tore the Inceptors chapter apart and stole all their stuff, pissing off all the other Ultramarines successors. They also may or may not have shot down a Grey Knight strike cruiser in order to take down a renegade Chapter they were supposed to destroy together.

Needless to say, /tg/ thinks they're pretty cool (and they are still massive dicks).

Geneseed Confusion

According to Eadwin Brown, one of the developers of the Badab War: The current incarnation of the Minotaurs use Iron Warriors geneseed. This makes sense, given their depiction in the Imperial Armour books basically being Iron Warriors with a bronze color scheme, however... The Imperial Armour books mentioned records of "chimeric" geneseed, but leaves it ambiguous by alluding to there having been different Minotaur chapters (essentially keeping the ketchup-mustard-psycho Minotaurs canon alongside the "new" Minotaurs). Pulling things like having records of the "Minotaurs" being around WAAAAAYYYYY back in M32, even tho psycho "Minotaurs" chapter is listed as M36 Cursed Founding; pointing out that "chimeric" geneseed Astartes tend to be mentally/physically unstable; but the "new" Minotaurs are about as stable as you can get (the "old" Minotaurs tho....yeah); and highlighting the difference in behavior, look, and combat doctrines of the bronze colored Minotaurs compared to records of the yellow/red Minotaurs.

Other Information

Terminator Sergeant Ixthalion of the Minotaurs in Tartaros pattern armor.

While the Minotaurs are strict followers of the Codex Astartes, they're almost never seen as small groups or even individual companies. Every time they're deployed its always been at full Chapter strength. Their incredible effectiveness just goes to prove the Codex is awesome at a Chapter level and above. It isn’t like Guilliman didn’t study his brothers’ tactics, too. They fight in only one war zone at a time with the entire chapter fighting together. This makes them essentially a massive fucking beatstick that the High Lords call upon when shit hits the fan. They also have an unusual preference for killing other Space Marines, which made them feel right at home during the Badab War. Given their fancy new gear, their borderline omnicidal tendencies, and always operating as a full chapter, it would seem that the job of the "Emperor's Executioners" no longer falls upon the Space Wolves (so the "High Lords' Executioners"?). They were probably created for fighting Chaos and renegade Marines and just sorta turned out pretty handy for forcing idiot Chapters into line.

To the High Lord’s credit, the Minotaurs seem to not be an abuse of power. The Chapters they beat up are let go if they flee or surrender early instead of digging in. Those that keep fighting are curbstomped, but not exterminated. And when they beat on Marines, it’s hard to argue that the receivers of said beating didn’t deserve it (save in very specific instances).

Unlike most Chapters, the Minotaurs appear to be able to replenish their numbers at an accelerated rate, to the point that they could recover from losses in a fraction of the time it would take other Chapters a century or two to fully recover from. Imperial observers during the Antigonis campaign theorized that this may have something to do with the heavy use of hypnotherapy and neuro-cerebral therapy used in the training of neophytes and frequently "refreshed" with the help of Apothecaries in the Chapter. This has proven to have some unpleasant side-effects- the Minotaurs are highly xenophobic and paranoid, even by the high standards of the Imperium.

There's also a good chance that they recruit from Terra itself thanks to their connections with the High Lords, giving them a massive recruit pool, as the Imperial Fists are also able to replenish losses equally fast thanks to having billions of potential candidates. This is mostly due to the Imperial Fists building recruitment posts on every world they rescue from invasion. Even then they request permission first as Dorn said he "...want recruits, not vassals". The Black Templars also do this and benefit greatly from this method. And since the Minotaurs gene-seed tithes are locked away nice and tight, no one is sure who their progenitors are. Given their tendencies to absolutely annihilate whatever is in their way it's certainly possible for them be successors to the World Eaters, but what little we do know about their gene-seed hints at it being "Chimeric". This would certainly make sense considering their Cursed Founding origins, but at the same time is pretty unusual since they are pretty much free of any mutations and have in fact one of the highest gene-seed acceptance rates of any Chapter. It could be argued that the Minotaurs are at least partially descended from Iron Warriors gene seed; their 7th ed chapter tactics are the same as the 30k Iron Warriors Legiones Astartes rules, both are known for their ferocity in assault and disregard for casualties, they share a very unique unique gene-seed quirk, and of course there is the whole underlying Greek theme.

With the coming of 8th Edition, the Minotaurs aren't doing so well. When the Death Guard directly besieged their space-borne Fortress-Monastery, they poisoned their gene stocks beyond repair, so as of now they're racing towards Terra to repair their gene-seed. While they're currently out of the fight, hopefully their trip to Terra will cause some revelations on their origins.

Aside from the hideous old ketchup-and-mustard motherfuckers and the Greek muggers, there are also a pair of Chapters called the Brass Minotaurs and White Minotaurs. There isn't much fluff on them.

(In)famous Campaigns

• Solar Rebellion - The Chapter is listed among the Imperial Forces tasked with bulldozing a Chaos-sparked rebellion within the Segmentium Solar. The interesting part is, this was in M32...the Cursed Founding was in M36..
• Macharian Heresy - The Chapter is called to deal with the petty star empires created by the former generals of Lord Solar Macharius. They crush one after the other, following all of the High Lord's orders without question, and causing a lot of collateral damage in the process.
• Euxine Incident - The action that earned the Chapter their reputation. Still during the Macharian Heresy, the Inceptors Chapter got involved in a fight with the Doom Warriors. They were supposedly drinking buddies before-hand but their friendship was broken over matters of "honor". The Imperium, not wanting more bullshit, sent in the Minotaurs to beat some sense into them. The Minotaurs, in their usual style, hit both chapters at once. The Doom Warriors, having some sense gained from this initial strike, left the Euxine system. The Inceptors did not leave. Instead they dug in and fought the Minotaurs like men. They lost, and the 100 surviving Inceptors were forced to surrender at barrel point. After they surrendered, the Minotaurs robbed their relics, jacked Battle-Barge, and left. The Ultramarines, seeing at how one of their own second founding successors got treated like shit, declared that the Minotaurs were permabanned from Ultramar.
• Defense of Hermetica - The heavily-fortified capital of a sector located in the Segmentum Solar finds itself overwhelmed when the Word Bearers suddenly dropped from a warp rift in a motherfucking Space Hulk filled to the brim with Mutants. The Minotaurs are the first imperial force to respond: they track the Dark Apostle into the main cathedral, and decide to blast their way in with orbital bombardement and tanks regardless of civilian casualties. Asterion Moloc and his Terminators slaugther their way into the catacombs, but the Dark Apostle escapes before he can be dealt the killing blow.
• Badab War - You know this one: Lugft Huron declares independance from the High Lords of Terra, and a fuckton of chapters are sent his way to remind him why that is not a thing. The Minotaurs gained several important victories during this time, but would be more infamously remembered for the shit they did to the poor Lamenters. (The same thing they did to the Inceptors) Suffice to say, if anyone had any doubts on their behavior before, those doubts were quickly dispelled after that.
• Battle of Rynn's World - The Minotaurs saw action on Rynn's World during the attempt to reclaim the Crimson Fists' homeworld from the Orks. Surprisingly, they didn't attempt anything like scavenging he ruins of the Crimson Fists Fortress-Monastery.
• Harrowing of the Night Reapers The aforementionned Chapter had been sent on penitent crusade to the a dengerous backwater nebula as punishment for abandoning a Shrine World to the forces of Chaos. They went radio silent after a while, and steadly started to deviate from Codex doctrine, tactics, and equipment. Six years after last contact and many suspicious raids in the area, irrefutable proof of their attack on a Rogue Trader vessel earned them an Excommunicate Traitoris. Four companies of the Avenging Sons went after them, but that chapter can't do anything right and got ambushed by the Night Reapers, who captured one of their Star Cruisers and mauled another. They blamed their humilliating defeat on "Warp flame weapons" that bypassed Void shields, so the High Lords had to send someone who could actually get shit done: The Minotaurs and the Red Hunters. (now we're talking) The two Chapters fought the Night Reapers and their heretekal Xeno-tech across a dozen star systems until they cornered them at a pre-human space wreck so massive it had it's own athmosphere and ecosystem. The Night Reapers were searching for a weapon that they beleived would allow them to defeat the Imperials, when a Grey Knights ship showed up demanding all Imperial forces to pull back. The Minotaurs, naturally, didn't give a fuck and kept fighting. The Knights of Titan had to launch their teleport assault in the midst of the battle. Shortly after, something happened that caused everyone to get BTFO to kingdom come: Minotaurs, Night Reapers, and Grey Knights alike. Asterion Moloc was the only survivor.
• Orphean War - Karma finally starts catching up to the Chapter's douchebaggery when they have to face the Necrons of the Maynarkh Dynasty. They lose their stolen ships in the desperate assault against the necron fleet over Amarah Prime, and take many casualties that would be sorely felt later in their race back to Terra. Moloc almost dies again, this time by achieving a mutual KO against the Maynarkh Overlord.

Daily Rituals

04:00 Wake Up: The Minotaurs arise from their beds. They make sure to beat up a dummy space marine before leaving.

05:00 Morning Prayer: The Minotaurs gather in the chapel to praise the Emperor. They also praise the High Lords of Terra. Any battle brother who prays to not kill innocent space marines is put in the "patience chamber."

06:00 Morning Firing Rituals: The Minotaurs drag out live space marines to practice firing upon. Any shot that kills the space marine instantly is put into the patience chamber.

08:00 Morning Battle Practice: The Minotaurs release their prisoners within the "patience chamber." Imprisoned members include failed Minotaurs, Ultramarines, Lamenters, Marines Malevolent, Fallen, and Grey Knights. The victims participants are then forced to fight the entire chapter with substandard equipment.

10:00 Morning Tactical Indoctrination: The Minotaurs finish off the last of their prisoners and gather together in the Great Hall to discuss strategy. Common tactics involve deepstriking on friendly units, missile strikes on engaged melee units, and ways to kill space marines. Any battle brother who points out these faults is put in the "patience chamber."

11:00 Afternoon Prayer: The Minotaurs give thanks to the High Lords of Terra for allowing them to be such dicks. In a sacred ritual, each battle brother is required to kiss the butt of a statue honoring the High Lords Of Terra. Any battle brother who claims this is gay is sent to the "patience chamber."

12:00 Afternoon Meal: The Minotaurs gather to feast upon fine meats and food provided by their buddies, the High Lords. Serfs rush quickly to ensure that each marine is fed to his heart's content.

13:00 Afternoon Battle Practice: The Minotaurs descend to any number of worlds in order to hone their space marine killing skills. The Lamenters are the most frequent target, but Baal and Ultramar are also popular destinations. A number of the space marines are captured and hidden in the "patience chamber"

15:00 Afternoon Firing Rites: The Minotaurs practice shooting at cutouts for once. These cutouts are usually painted blue, and shaped like a familiar chapter...

16:00 Enhanced Tactical Indoctrine: The Minotaurs learn how to most effectively teamkill each army in the Imperium. During this time, they also will use simulators in order to cause the most possible destruction upon friendly space marines.

18:00 Evening Meal: The Minotaurs feast once again, using the payroll of the High Lords to purchase a huge amount of pizza. ANY brother who feels guilty about the excessive amount of money spent on pizza is sent to the "patience chamber."

17:00 Recruitment: Slaves and unfortunate folk are rounded up and forced to either serve as serfs for the chapter, or begin the Space Marine training process. Imperial Officials are ordered to turn a blind eye to this process, causing the Salamanders to RAGE.

20:00 Propaganda: The Minotaurs gather in the Great Hall to listen to the brilliant, enlightened, sophisticated, and productive conversations that the High Lords partake in. Any Battle brother who claims the High Lords are doing nothing is sent to the "patience chamber."

22:00 Free time: The Minotaurs are granted free time. This mostly involves reading the excessive number of manuals on how to kill space marines, or beating each other up as practice.

23:00 Bed Time: The Minotaurs retire to their quarters for the evening. Before falling asleep, they beat up the space marine dummy again.

Tabletop

Chapter Approved

When the first Minotaurs were introduced as one of the Cursed Founding chapters, for +10 points per model, or +20 per dreadnought (on top of the regular costs) you could give your entire army Fearless and +1 Attack though they had to move towards and assault the nearest enemy they could (even if they had no chance of hurting it) and had to sweep advance, but nobody did it because painting them WAS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE. Both because they had the most annoying colour scheme (worse than the quarter ones like the Howling Griffons) and because their colours made them look fucking ugly.

5th Edition/Imperial Armour

Their revamped rules from the Imperial Armour books essentially make them play as 40k version Heresy-Era Iron Warriors, being all about Siege Siege Siege!

7th Edition

With the updates they got their own Chapter Tactics. Minotaurs Chapter Tactics models don't take morale checks from shooting attacks, and can re-roll failed pinning tests. In addition they have crusader USR, and +1 to charge distance when in the enemy deployment zone. Overall one of the worst Chapter Tactics. Crusader certainly is nice to have, but ATSKNF makes re-rolling pinning and no morale checks from shooting pretty redundant. If you're gonna play Minotaurs you're gonna have to bring Moloc, who is a fucking monster in CC while gaining a VP per character executed in a challenge and giving your guys Prefered Enemy (Space Marines). So if you didn't get the memo, Minotaurs are meant to be run with Moloc as your Warlord against other Space Marine armies. If a friend of yours is running a really annoying Space Marine army, especially if he has Smashfucker, sic these guys on him and watch him cry.

8th Edition

How 8th Edition treated Forge World chapters is an issue of intense debate. Sure, you can choose whatever tactic you want, but it still feels like an afterthought on the part of Games Workshop. That aside, Moloc and Aiakos came out of the update relatively unscathed, still being hard nuts to crack and very lethal overall, but with loss of initiative, and Moloc has lost the main thing he was taken for - the godsent army-wide Preferred enemy: Space Marines. Instead he can "do the wulfen" now. Ivanus, however, has lost all of his utility and is just an overpriced Chaplain with attacks and wounds of a captain, and no longer gains an extra attack from having two specialist weapons. Kraatos also no longer exists as of the FAQ, with Forge World telling you to just use him as a regular devastator marine. ROC pattern Storm Eagle still rocks though.

Gallery

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  Their original scheme, just try and paint an entire Chapter of them

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  Stylized red markings are used to ientify Veteran Squads...

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  ...And sergeants